Convertible rocking chair

ABSTRACT

A rocking chair which may be converted to a high chair or low chair. Each leg of the chair includes two rods threaded thereto which may be removed to adjust the height of the chair. A pair of rocker legs are fixedly mounted to the bottom rods of the legs. A tray is removably mounted to the chair arms by a plurality of spring biased pins which removably project into slots provided on the mutually opposed surfaces of the arms. A handle beneath the tray is movable to retract the pins. Inserts are provided in the slots on the arms to prevent outward movement of the tray until the pins are retracted.

United States Patent 1191 Perry 1 Apr. 1, 1975 1 CONVERTIBLE ROCKINGCHAIR 75] Inventor: James T. Perry, Knightstown, 1nd. 8

[73] Assignee: Philip II. Willkie, Rushville, 1nd. a

part interest [22] Filed: Aug. 16, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 388,825

12/1966 Winters 248/1882 9/1972 Pierce 248/159 [57] ABSTRACT A rockingchair which may be converted to a high chair or low chair. Each leg ofthe chair includes two rods threaded thereto which may be removed toadjust the height of the chair. A pair of rocker legs are fixedlymounted to the bottom rods of the legs. A tray is removably mounted tothe chair arms by a plurality of spring biased pins which removablyproject into slots provided on the mutually opposed surfaces of thearms. A handle beneath the tray is movable to retract the pins. Insertsare provided in the slots on the arms to prevent outward movement of thetray until the pins are retracted.

1 Claim, 6 Drawing Figures PMENTED APR 1 I975 SHEET 1 BF 2 v b MuCONVERTIBLE ROCKING CHAIR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Field of theInvention This invention is in the field of chairs.

2. Description of the Prior Art A number of patents have been granted ona variety of chairs which are convertible from a rocking type of chairto a conventional chair. For example, the following US. patents havebeen issued for convertible rocking chairs:

755,387 issued to Thompson;

1,427,795 issued to Ernst;

2,644,506 issued to Pollack; and

3,269,771 issued to Erdos;

Another patent of interest is the US. Pat. No. 3,334,942 issued toBreslow.

In spite of the prior art devices, there is still a need fora childschair which may be quickly and easily converted from a rocking chair toa high chair and then to a low chair wherein the low chair has a seatwhich is positioned closer to the floor than the high chairconfiguration. Disclosed herein is such a chair.

A problem with many of the prior art high chairs is the fact that thetray which is mounted to the chair for supporting food. etc., isdifficult to remove from the chair. Many chairs allow the fingers of thechild to become pinched within the mechanism securing the tray to thechair. In addition, when removing the tray, one must look beneath thetray to disengage the mechanism. Disclosed herein is a chair having atray which may be easily installed and easily removed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention is aconvertible chair comprising a main frame including a seat, back supportand arms connected together with four legs depending therefrom, a pairof spaced apart arcuate rockers each of which having a pair of holesextending therethrough, and, leg extensions thrcadedly mounted to thefour legs and extending therebencath, the extensions each having abifurcated bottom end forming a pair of spaced apart walls with abearing pin mounted thereto, the rockers extend between the spaced apartwalls with each bearing pin extending thrt'wrgh one of the holesmounting the rockers to all of the extensions.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new andimprovedchair.

A further object ofthe present invention is to provide a chair which maybe converted from a rocking chair to a high chair.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a rocking chairwhich may be converted to a high chair and then to a low chair.

Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a front view of a chairincorporating the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the chair of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along theline 33 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along theline 44 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken along theline 5-5 of FIG. 4 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the tray mounted to the chair shown in FIG.1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT For the purposes of promoting anunderstanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now bemade to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific languagewill be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understoodthat no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended,such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device,and such further applications of the principles of the invention asillustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to oneskilled in the art to which the invention relates.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, there is shown aconvertible chair 10 which may be quickly changed from a rocking chairto a high chair and then to a low chair. Chair 10 has a main frame 11which includes a seat 12 having a back support 13 and a pair of arms 14and 15 mounted thereon. Four legs 16 depend from seat 12 and have a pairof arcuate, spaced apart, rockers l7 and 18 mounted thereto. Legs I6each include a top portion 19 which is fixedly mounted to seat I2, amiddle portion 20 thrcadedly extending into portion 19 and a bottomportion 21 which thrcadedly extends into middle portion 20. As shown inFIG. 3, the upper portion 19 of each leg 16 is provided with aninternally threaded socket 22 which receives the top end of middleportion 20. Likewise, middle portion 20 is provided with a bottom endhaving an internally threaded socket which thrcadedly receives the topend of the lower portion 21 of each leg. Bottom portions 21 of the legsattached to rocker 18 include bifurcated bottom ends forming a pair ofspaced apart walls 22 and 23 with a pair of pins 24 and 25 extendingthrough walls 22 and 23 and also through rocker 18 thereby mounting therocker to .the legs. Rocker 17 is mounted to the bifurcated bottom endsof the other two legs in a similar manner. A pair of holes are providedin walls 22 and 23 to receive pins 24 and 25.

In order to change the rocker shown in FIG. 1 to a high chair, lowerportions 21 are unthreaded from middle portions 20. Likewise, when it isdesired to change the high chair to a low chair, then middle portions 20may be unthreaded from upper portions 19 so as to allow the chair to situpon the bottom ends of upper portions 19.

Tray 25 is removably mounted to arms I4 and 15 and has four springbiased pins 26 through 29 which project into slots formed on themutually opposed vertical surfaces of arms 14 and 15. Four tubes 30through 33 are mounted to and beneath tray 25 each slidably receivingand spring biasing a pin outwardly. For example, tube 31 is hollow andslidably receives pin 27. A helical spring 34 is positioned within tube31 and is operable to urge pin 27 outwardly and into the slot providedin the arm. The inner end of pin 27 is enlarged to prevent disengagementof the pin with respect to the tube. Each tube is slotted to allowconnection between the pin and the retracting handle. For example, tube31 is provided with a slot through which rod 36 projects with one end ofrod 36 being connected to pin 27 whereas the opposite end of rod 36 isconnected to pin 26. Rod 36 in turn is fixedly connected to a second rod31 which is slidably mounted to bracket 38 fixedly secured to tray- 25.Likewise, rod 39 is connected to pins 28 and 29 and to rod 40. Theopposite ends 41 and 42 of rods 31' and 40 form retracting handles whichwhen pulled together retract the pins from arms 14 and 15.

Arm 14 will now be described it being understood that a similardescription applies to arm 15. Arm 14 is provided with a slot 43 (FIG.4) which has a beveled surface 44 extending around the slot allowing thepins to be guided into the slot. An insert 45 is positioned within slot43 and is fixedly secured to arm 14. Insert 45 (FIG. 5) has a pluralityof saw configured teeth 46 formed on the surface which is mutuallyopposed from arm 15. Each tooth includes a leading surface 47 whichextends toward arm 15 and rearwardly toward the back support 13. Inaddition, each tooth has a rear vertical surface 48 which isperpendicularly arranged with respect to the arm. The teeth on arm 15are mutually opposed to the teeth positioned on arm 14. Likewise, therecesses between the teeth on arm 14 are mutually opposed to therecesses between the teeth on arm 15. Surfaces 48 act as stops toprevent the tray from moving outwardly until the pins are retracted.Surfaces 47 push the pins inwardly the tray is pushed toward backsupport 13.

' It will be obvious from the above description that the presentinvention provides a new and improved chair. It will be further obviousfrom the above description that the present invention provides a chairwhich may be converted from a rocking chair to a high chair and then toa low chair.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood thatonly the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that allchanges and modifications that come within the spirit of the inventionare desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

l. A convertible chair comprising:

a main frame including a seat, back support and arms connected togetherwith four legs depending therefrom;

a pair of spaced apart arcuate rockers each of which having a pair ofholes extending therethrough; and,

leg extensions threadedly mounted to said four legs and extendingtherebeneath, said extensions each having a bifurcated bottom endforming a pair of spaced apart walls with a bearing pin mounted thereto,said rockers extend between said spaced apart walls with each bearingpin extending through one of said holes mounting said rockers to all ofsaid extensions;

a tray removably mounted to said arms; said arms have mutually opposedvertical surfaces with a slot in each of said surfaces;

said tray includes a pair of housings and a first pair locking means onsaid arm and in each slot to engage said pins and lock said tray to saidarm;

retracting means mounted to said tray and connected to said pins beingoperable to retract said pins and unlock said tray from said arms, saidretracting means includes a first handle fixedly connected to said firstpair of pins and slidably mounted to said tray and a second handlefixedly mounted to said second pair of pins and slidably mounted to saidtray, said first handle and said second handle being movable together toretract said pins from said arms;

said locking means includes a pair of inserts each mounted in a slot insaid arms, said inserts include a plurality of recesses to lockinglyreceive said pins,

said recesses on one insert are mutually opposed and aligned withrecesses of the other insert;

each of said extensions include a top rod and a bottom rod in linetherewith and removably threaded together with said top rod removablythreaded into a leg and said bottom rod connected to one of saidrockers, said bottom rod of said extension is removable to convert saidchair from a rocking chair to a high chair, said top rod of saidextension is removable with said bottom rod of said extension to convertsaid chair from a high chair to a low chair;

said inserts have saw toothed configurations formed on mutually opposedsurfaces of said arms, said saw toothed configurations each include aleading surface extending inwardly and rearwardly toward said backsupport and a rear vertical surface providing a stop surface which isarranged perpendicularly to said arms.

1. A convertible chair comprising: a main frame including a seat, backsupport and arms connected together with four legs depending therefrom;a pair of spaced apart arcuate rockers each of which having a pair ofholes extending therethrough; and, leg extensions threadedly mounted tosaid four legs and extending therebeneath, said extensions each having abifurcated bottom end forming a pair of spaced apart walls with abearing pin mounted thereto, said rockers extend between said spacedapart walls with each bearing pin extending through one of said holesmounting said rockers to all of said extensions; a tray removablymounted to said arms; said arms have mutually opposed vertical surfaceswith a slot in each of said surfaces; said tray includes a pair ofhousings and a first pair of parallel pins slidably mounted within saidhousings, said tray further includes a second pair of housings and asecond pair of parallel pins slidably mounted within said second pair ofhousings, each housing having a spring mounted therein forcing saidfirst pair of pins into one of said arms and said second pair of pinsinto the other of said arms, each of said pins normally projectingoutwardly of the periphery of said tray, each pin having an outercircular distal end; and further comprising: locking means on said armand in each slot to engage said pins and lock said tray to said arm;retracting means mounted to said tray and connected to said pins beingoperable to retract said pins and unlock said tray from said arms, saidretracting means includes a first handle fixedly connected to said firstpair of pins and slidably mounted to said tray and a second handlefixedly mounted to said second pair of pins and slidably mounted to saidtray, said first handle and said second handle being movable together toretract said pins from said arms; said locking means includes a pair ofinserts each mounted in a slot in said arms, said inserts include aplurality of recesses to lockingly receive said pins, said recesses onone insert are mutually opposed and aligned with recesses of the otherinsert; each of said extensions includE a top rod and a bottom rod inline therewith and removably threaded together with said top rodremovably threaded into a leg and said bottom rod connected to one ofsaid rockers, said bottom rod of said extension is removable to convertsaid chair from a rocking chair to a high chair, said top rod of saidextension is removable with said bottom rod of said extension to convertsaid chair from a high chair to a low chair; said inserts have sawtoothed configurations formed on mutually opposed surfaces of said arms,said saw toothed configurations each include a leading surface extendinginwardly and rearwardly toward said back support and a rear verticalsurface providing a stop surface which is arranged perpendicularly tosaid arms.